I was a bit suspicious of kombucha before I tried it. I just didn’t fancy the idea of fermented tea and couldn’t work out why or when I might drink it.
Then I had my head turned by a deliciously cool, slightly fizzy, ginger flavoured, hardly sweet kombucha made by a company called Clever Kombucha, based in Glasgow. I drank a small bottle with lunch, at a restaurant, and really liked it. Clever Kombucha became my benchmark.
Come dry January I decided to make kombucha myself as a stand in for my usual glass of wine. My home made gingery, fizzy, slightly sharp kombucha got me through to the end of February without even a nip of alcohol.
Do try Clever Kombucha if you can. You will then know what you are aiming for - taste wise and if you are in a restaurant or cafe it is a great choice.
Kombucha was much easier and less fickle to make than I had expected and I now brew four litres a week. This is the low down on how to make kombucha at home.
Stage one
You need to buy something called a SCOBY (or symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeasts). A SCOBY looks like a pale rubber disc and is home to the bacteria and yeasts that ferment the cold black teas which forms the basis of kombucha. The SCOBY arrives in a sealed plastic bag immersed in liquid. I bought mine from www.happykombucha.co.uk
You need a large SCOBY to make 2 litres of kombucha.
This is a large SCOBY - symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeasts
Stage two
Place 6 teabags (I use Yorkshire Tea bags) in a large plastic bowl together with 160g granulated sugar. Pour over 2 litres of freshly boiled water. Stir until the sugar has dissolved. Remove the teabags after 30 minutes and allow the tea to cool to room temperature.
Stage three
Place the cool sweetened tea in a large glass jar and add the SCOBY, together with the liquid it arrived in. Cover the jar loosely with either a piece of linen or a lid. Air needs to circulate around the jar and the fermenting kombucha needs to be protected from dust or debris.
NB Do not let anything metal come into contact with the kombucha or SCOBY.
Stage four
Leave the kombucha somewhere warm (21C -24C) for seven days.
Stage five
Pour off the kombucha leaving the SCOBY in the jar together with enough of the liquid to keep it covered. The SCOBY must be covered in some of the original liquid and not allowed to dry out.
Stage six
Wash the bottles you are going to use to store your kombucha in the dishwasher on a hot wash. Bottle the kombucha and store in the fridge. The kombucha will continue to ferment in the bottle so if you would like more fizz you can keep the bottles at room temperature but remember to ‘burp’ the bottles every now and again to release some of the carbon dioxide.
To flavour kombucha
Fresh ginger flavoured kombucha.
Put 150g root ginger through a juicer and add to the strained kombucha
Fresh lime flavoured kombucha
Squeeze the juice of a small lime and add about a tablespoon to a small glass (200ml) kombucha
Freshly pressed ginger to flavour kombucha
Stage seven - making more kombucha
Begin the whole process again following the instructions from Stage two (above)
When your SCOBY arrives in the post it comes with more detailed instructions which you can read if you go ahead with brewing your own kombucha. For example you can:
make the kombucha sweeter by adding more sugar at Stage two. Between 160g - 200g is recommended for 2 litres of water.
use different black teas at Stage one.
leave the kombucha for longer than 7 days recommended in Stage 4 if you like a more vinegary taste. Try your kombucha after 7 days and give it longer if you want a stronger tatse.
experiment with adding other flavours such as apple juice and lemongrass. I like to keep things simple just stuck with either ginger or lime.
After about a month you will see that your SCOBY has produced a ‘baby’ - a disc of thick jelly.When this has grown to the size of your original SCOBY you can then make double the quantity.
Now my SCOBY has had a ‘baby’ I brew double the amount in this jar. Every 7 days I pour the kompucha off and restart with twice the amount of cooled sweetened tea and sugar i.e. 4 litres of tea, 320g granulated sugar.
Fresh lime juice is a great way to flavour kombucha. Add some of the zest too.